Now that Ford’s Mustang GTD is rolling out, what’s the automaker planning to come up with next? It’s offering a hint with an assortment of teaser images suggesting the newly renamed Ford Racing division will debut a “production road car” in January. Stay tuned, it seems for something big – and fast – to debut at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show. Headlight.News has more.
What better way to launch the newly renamed Ford Racing division. Okay, winning big with its new Red Bull F1 partnership would be big news. And in a big announcement, Ford revealed it will formally debut its 2026 racing plans at the Detroit Auto Show this coming January. But there’s another big announcement in store.
Seems the Blue Oval brand’s motorsports arm is working up a “production road car” that, speculation has it, will serve as its next supercar.
The timing seems right. Ford ended production of the vaunted GT model in 2022 and has finally launched the Mustang GTD, its most recent halo car. These teaser images suggest what the carmaker might be ready to bring to the streets.
Ford Racing set to make big news
The original Ford GT40 in iconic Gulf livery.
We’ll find out exactly what Ford has in mind on January 15, 2026 at an event at the Michigan Central Station, the long-dilapidated train depot that the company recently restored as part of a nearly $1 billion project in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. The gathering will follow by a day the Detroit Auto Show’s annual media preview. Ford is one of just a small group of automakers expected to debut new products during the show.
But there’ll be plenty to talk about. Ford one thing, Ford plans to break with recent tradition. It has been announcing details of its upcoming racing season in Charlotte, North Carolina. This will mark the first time the reveal takes place in the Motor City and, as Ford officials pointed out, this will mark the 125th anniversary of the race founder Henry Ford won against Alexander Winton, a victory that helped him secure the funding needed to launch his company.
“Bringing it here, lining it up with the auto show, having such a big announcement around the F1 part of this, especially in Detroit, with all of our employees and families here,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Racing.
Taking things to the next level
The Ford Mustang GTD.
Among other things, Ford will provide more details about its return to Formula One racing as the source for the power unit for the Red Bull and Racing Bulls teams.
Ford has a significant, albeit spotty, history in global motorsports, most notably a series of four consecutive wins at Le Mans from 1966 to 1969. It was touched off by a grudge match, former Chairman Henry Ford determined to beat the dominant Ferrari team after the Italian automaker rejected an acquisition bid. It did so in spectacular form, that first year with a 1-2-3 Ford finish.
Like its competitors, Ford insists that what it learns on the track eventually makes its street cars better. But it would take nearly four decades for the automaker to honor its Le Mans win with a production supercar. The limited-edition GT debuted in 2004 and continued in production for two years. It took more than a decade for a second-generation GT to follow, that model wrapping up production in 2022.
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A new GT in the works?
In 2023, Ford revealed it was working up yet another supercar – but, in something of a surprise, it described a “street-legal” racer based on the brand’s long-running pony car. The Mustang GTD, proclaimed Jim Baumbick, the automaker’s vice president of product development, would be “the most audacious and advanced Mustang ever.”
Now, it appears, Ford is ready to move on. Speculation is running rampant, to use that cliché, with some expecting the actual model to be a third-generation GT. Others are betting it will the Mustang GTD to the next level and perhaps be aimed at challenging the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X, a hybrid-powered beast that currently holds the lap record at the legendary German Nurburgring.
It would be no surprise if Ford mirrored what’s happening in Formula 1 with a hybridized powertrain. Indeed, CEO Jim Farley this past year suggested the company might work up a 1,000+ electrified supercar – though one he indicated would target off-road race series like the Baja 1000.
Exactly what Ford has in store will come out in a matter of weeks, for now the automaker saying only that, “For the first time ever, fans worldwide will…get an exclusive sneak peek at an all-new Ford Racing production road car.”
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